The Primary Trait System (PTS) of scoring was devised by the National Assessment of Educational Progress to score large numbers of natural writing samples. Essentially, PTS permits evaluation of writing in an objective way, but one that does not rely on scoring surface features such as mechanics, grammar, or spelling. While the assessment value of…

Instructors' knowledge of linguistics can affect the way they teach writing. For example, in traditional linguistics, O. Jespersen's important contribution is his descriptive rather than prescriptive study of English in a historical context. Writing teachers influenced by Jespersen will place students in writing situations where they do not rely…

An approach to generating enthusiasm for writing through a writing contest is described in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): Why would a librarian sponsor a writing contest for more than eleven hundred students in an elementary school? I wanted to provide a writing experience for my students that would be a positive one; I hoped to…

A study investigated the relationship between students' communication apprehension levels and their attitudes toward the use of video recording in a basic speech course. A communication apprehension measure and a questionnaire on perceptions of videotape use in class were completed by 230 undergraduate basic speech students. The findings…

A principal cause of the seeming "foreignness" in the compositions of English as a second language (ESL) university students is discussed, and an approach to correcting the problem is suggested. It is asserted that the English language compositions of ESL students reflect native language rhetorical norms which are culturally based. Discourse bloc…

In teaching introductory English as a second language to nonliterate adult refugees, the focus should initially be on oral skills. The literature on characteristics of recent Southeast Asian refugees and suggested curriculum strategies is reviewed in order to determine the appropriate curriculum and methods for this group. A curriculum for…

This experiment in adult learning processes was carried out in a course in applied linguistics in which the students were teachers with experience in teaching English as a foreign language. Consideration of the importance of process in such a situation derived from dissatisfaction with the lecture and tutor-led seminar methods, from the…

The advantages and disadvantages of new software for market segmentation analysis are discussed, and the application of this new, chi-square based procedure (CHAID), is illustrated. A comparison is presented of an earlier, binary segmentation technique (THAID) and a multiple discriminant analysis. It is suggested that CHAID is superior to earlier…

Recognizing the importance of creating quality reading teachers, this paper describes a 15-week reading methods course incorporating university instruction with well-supervised field experience. Optimum conditions of easy access to schools and children, an abundance of basal and supplementary materials, and five hours per week of student time are…

At a workshop exploring practical methods that elementary and secondary teachers may use to analyze texts, three parallel texts were subjected to three forms of analysis: subjective analysis, examination of cohesive ties, and linguistic analysis of selected text variables such as word and sentence length. The subjective ranking of the passages'…

Current policy analysis has proved less useful in improving public policy formation than policy scientists once argued it would. At least part of the reason for this lies in the fact that policy analysis has concentrated too narrowly on economic paradigms in teaching and practice, minimizing the evaluation of consequences outside that field. To be…

The University of Colorado at Boulder is in the fifth year of a seven-year cycle of program review of academic units on the campus, primarily focusing on improving weak programs through a system of self-study designed to specifically address concerns of fairness, credibility, and usefulness. The units under review use data provided by the Office…

This fact sheet provides an overview of the potential effects of new communications technologies on education. The topics which are addressed include: (1) examples of communications technologies including television, teletext and viewdata, Instructional Television Fixed Service and Multipoint Distribution Services, videodiscs, direct broadcast…

This monograph reviews studies which have measured and compared classroom and other human behaviors occurring in different cultures and nations, points out problems related to the comparisons made, and describes procedures which can be used to help standardize measurements of behavior made using systematic observation instruments. Standardization…

The misuse and misunderstanding of adverbs by nonnative speakers of English are examined, and the approaches of commonly-used grammar texts to these problems are discussed. Two separate studies provide information for examining adverb use: a longitudinal study of the written work of 23 adult students in two low-to-intermediate level intensive…